


'The Gay Guy'

by LaughingThalia



Category: The Night Shift (TV 2014)
Genre: Canon Gay Character, Canon Gay Relationship, Comfort, Coming Out, Gay Male Character, M/M, Pride, Spoilers of S1e1 - s2e10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 06:25:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10551580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaughingThalia/pseuds/LaughingThalia
Summary: --When they first met, Drew almost had a full on panic attack because heknewin an instant that he was in love with Rick Lincoln and it completely terrified him.-----He wouldn't come out, hecouldn'tcome out, he refused to be'The Gay Guy'in the platoon.-------It took almost 4 whole months of Drew attempting to avoid the other man before Rick caught on to why.----





	

**Author's Note:**

> Spoiler warning fro Season 1 Episode 1 to Season 2 Episode 10.

When they first met Drew almost had a full on panic attack because he knew in an instant that he was in love with Rick and it terrified him. He wouldn't come out, he _couldn't_ come out, he refused to be _'The Gay Guy'_ in the platoon.  
It took almost 4 whole months of Drew attempting to avoid the other man before Rick caught on to why. Rick had dragged him into an empty side room late at night, push him up against a wall and kissed him right there and then.

It took a few days for Drew to accept it, like _fully_ accept it.

Of course he always _knew_ he was gay but he'd never told anyone about it, not in High School, not in Med School and certainly not in The Army. Like they said, Don't Ask Don't Tell. The very thought of it had made him want to throw up, made him sick to his stomach. Made his insides churn and butterflies flutter in his stomach and his throat close up until it felt like he couldn't breath even though logically he knew he could. And some people might call that a panic attack but Drew never called it that, it made no sense for him to be having attacks like that _before_ he went to war. Absolutely no sense.

But slowly Rick soothed that side of him, with soft brief touches when they ate, and a sweet smile before an ambush, and those stolen moments of just being themselves they sometimes took late at night when one of them was on watch. Of course telling other people, telling his Platoon, 'coming out', still scared the shit out of him because he refused to be _'The Gay Soldier'_ in the Squadron.

And when he ended up as a doctor in a hospital in Texas with other vets like T.C. and Topher it was great. People rarely asked him about his love life because they were all too busy making fun of TC and Jordan’s relationship or joking about the nurse Kenny and his 'guns'. That was until Mollie started trying to set him up with her niece, since then it felt like the jabs about the girlfriend he told them he had that they never saw who was 'out of town' and each time they brought her up his heart leapt into his throat and he felt that panic come back. He refused to be _'The Gay Doctor'_ in the ER. He point blank refused it.

So when TC approached him on the roof whilst he was training and told him that _he knew and it was okay_ Drew almost had a heart attack right there and then, he wanted to take a flying leap off of the building and just not have to deal with this conversation right now. His voice shook slightly as he asked TC if he thought anyone else suspected; he ignored the shake, pretended it didn't exist and he was glad that TC did the same but that did nothing to stop the feeling that a bucket of cold water had just been dumped all over him, even as he stood in the warm Texan sun.

And then Rick came home. And it wasn't fair, the guy survives Afghanistan without so much as a scratch, but the moment he gets home he has to lose a leg? And it kills him that he can't be there for him because his colleagues are there and Rick's regiment is there and neither of them have come out. But Krista metaphorically slaps the sense back into him and he realises that it doesn't matter in that moment because _Rick needed him_ and he'd be _damned_ if he let Rick go through this alone.

Of course coming out to your friends and coming out to the world are two completely different things. His friends knew him, they loved him, and he trusted them; it was a safe space for him, a thing that Rick picked up on the moment he got back from his parents and a thing that he very clearly defined as a deal breaker. And Rick was right, he didn't care what other people thought of him, especially not some homeless druggie who refused to let a gay man treat him because a gay man touching him made him uncomfortable.

And it took a few hours for Drew to accept it, like _fully_ accept it.

Of course he always _knew_ he was gay but he'd never told anyone about it, and now here he was about to blurt it out all over TV. Obviously it was already out there but that was different. That was against his will and without his permission. And sure it still made him want to throw up, and it still made him sick to his stomach. It still made his insides churn and butterflies flutter in his stomach and his throat close up until he felt like he couldn't even breath even though logically he knew that he could. But a steady hand on his soothed him. Drew tended to think his nervousness that day was more linked to stage fright then coming out.

Maybe being _'The Gay Guy'_ wouldn't be that bad if it helped other LGBTA+ people in professions where it's stigmatised. He would embrace it.

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies for any typos or mistakes I wrote this kinda quickly.


End file.
